Mock Printz 2011 Book List by way of the Beastie Boys

Well, as Mike D would rap, I'm tired of driving it's due time I walk about.

After spending hours over the past week toggling back and forth between Booklist Online, Amazon, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Good Reads, Powell's Books (online and in the stacks), I sent my Mock Printz workshop partner (the fabulous Jennifer Studebaker from FVRL) my top ten suggestions for our reading list. Two rambling voicemails (on my part) and one telephone conference later, we came to an agreement on what to include for this year's list.

Drum beat please . . .

They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: the Birth of an American Terrorist Group -

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Every year we like to include at least one nonfiction title. This year we consideredThe War to End All Wars by Russell Freedman (a worthy book on the often glossed-over-in-history-class topic of World War I) and Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World by the dearly departed Sid Fleischman (a biography on an actor I have always adored and - just like Pam from The Office - dressed up as for Hallowe'en one October). The decision to go with Bartoletti's book was based on her excellent research, approachable writing style and fearlessness in tackling a subject that will make the high school students I work with think of how people have dealt with injustice and still face prejudice beyond their local slice of reality.

Black Hole Sun - David Macinnis Gill

Every time I think of this book, my mental music player starts blasting Soundgarden followed by R.E.M. Call this my "I have a hunch book"/my Monstrumologist for 2011. So, that means I haven't read it yet, but I've heard good things and I am always in need of a new go-to sci-fi title for my students that love the genre I despise the most. Listen, if a reviewer tells me to buckle my seatbelt because I'm in for a literary wild ride, I say step on the gas. We're off to Mars, readers.

Wicked Girls: a Novel of the Salem Witch Trials – Stephanie Hemphill

At the 2008 Mock Printz workshop I attended, Hemphill’s Sylvia Plath book was on the reading list. I was the only person in attendance who chose the book as my “winner” – passionately proselytizing to the participants that this novel was the most well-written young adult offering for that publishing year. I was denounced, derided, accused in veiled terms of basically being off my rocker – much like the treatment a few girls from Puritan New England received in 1692. I am planning to read this novel at the most apropos time – which, of course, will be the bewitching holiday my Scottish forebears brought with them to America – All Hallow’s Eve. Cue witch’s cackle.

The Water Seeker – Kimberly Willis Holt

Every year, we like to include a title written for the younger end of the Printz age spectrum. This year we chose a story with local resonance as Holt’s historical fiction follows the life of Amos, who as a young boy is left by his father to live with in-laws and as a young adult reunites with his father to join a wagon train following the Oregon Trail.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend - Emily Horner

Two contemporary YA novels I read and LOVED this summer were The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. Horner's story included elements I appreciated so much in these two books (the staging of an original musical/being committed to helping a friend see their artistic endeavors come to fruition and the examination of how we deal with the vacuum that is created when someone we love leaves us behind.)

Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta

Can she do it? Can the Aussie author snag another Printz? With the book cover published Down Under, perhaps (I'm not too keen on the Excalibur-esque Candlewick cover art). You know how I feel about endpapers that contain maps. You also know that I'm not too fond of prologues - which is how far I have gotten into this book. Miss M swears the story gets better and I have students that start twirling around and working themselves into a dither asking when I am going to read this already?! Sorry, Hugh Jackman, but when deciding between this novel or Catherine Fisher's Incarceron, we decided to show the love to your countrywoman.

Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty - G. Neri ; illustrated by Randy DuBurke

While there were many graphic novels we considered (Red Moon by David McAdoo, Mercury by Hope Larson and Trickster: Native American Tales), the book that demanded to be represented was G. Neri's Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty. Knowing that the author decided to tell this story in a graphic novel format that middle school students would have access to versus writing a screenplay that most likely would have garnered a rating that would restrict most teenagers from seeing the final product made me want to get the word out on a title that will have strong appeal to those students who think there is nothing in the library that they would be interested in reading. This story feels Punkzilla-esque to me - very gritty and more depressing, though, considering it is based on the real life story of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, who, at the age of 11, was gunned down by members of his own gang for accidentally killing a neighborhood girl.

Revolver - Marcus Sedgwick

This one seems to have all the doorways covered in a Nancy Pearl reader's advisory workshop: Arctic Circle setting, compelling and mysterious characters, a story grappling with the question of whether violence can ever be justified, and written in such a taut manner that no detail should be taken for granted.

Last Summer of the Death Warriors - Francisco X. Stork

I love that Dan McCarthy, the cover artist for Marcelo in the Real World, has created the artwork for Stork's latest YA offering. When I heard about this novel at PLA in March, I knew I would enjoy reading it. How can you resist a story written in the third person with teenagers named after characters in Don Quixote? You can not.

Nothing - Janne Teller

As the 2009-2010 school year came to a close, one of my students told me she planned to read this book over the summer. I checked out a copy from my local library and added the book to the bulging backpack I lugged across country for my family reunion summer vacation aboard a Disney cruise. What disparity! "The Happiest Place on Earth's" floating flagship mashed up with a novel that has thirteen-year-olds questioning if there is really any meaning whatsoever to life and going to gruesome lengths to desperately prove to themselves that there is. Blæste mit sind!

And with that our list of 10 is done. If you follow my Twitter feed, you'll know that my powers of prognostication are poor in comparison to Paul, the oracle octopus. Paul is from Germany, though; so, I'm betting my euros that he picks his neighbor to the north to win the coveted Printz. Time will tell if I have chosen the right box of mussels.